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Why we should be thankful

Defeat and worse await those who fail to show gratitude for all that is right and wonderful in their lives and in this special nation of ours .

Our liberty , our material bounty , our unexcelled opportunities , our science , our technology , our generosity as a people , the talents of our neighbors , the kindness we so often encounter , the natural splendor of our land , the humor that bubbles up constantly , traditions that guide us in productive directions , a dramatic lessening of much that used to afflict us , and so much more .

Even in the worst of times – no , especially in the worst of times – appreciation of our blessings is critical . Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation came during the Civil War , the most bloody , awful years in American history , and so why , one might wonder , was he talking about ” fruitful fields and healthful skies ” about law and order being maintained during the conflict , about a growing population , enlargements of settlements and other ” gracious gifts of the Most High God ? ” An answer is that by doing so he was helping to keep people from losing themselves in contemplation of nothing but the painful , to balance the frightening with hopeful , to derive power from the positive , to push ahead .

It may well be that the United States is now facing one of the toughest economic periods we have known for a while . But I am convinced , nothing that hits us will destroy all that , and granting as much will help us recover . This Thanksgiving will itself be something to be grateful for if we really do turn our attention to the marvels of our time , our place , our lives , for here lies rejuvenation , a source of energy and inspiration .

TO commemorate the arrival of the first pilgrims to Americaâ€™s shores, a June date would be far more appropriate, accompanied perhaps by coq au vin and a nice Bordeaux. After all, the first European arrivals seeking religious freedom in the â€œNew Worldâ€ were French. And they beat their English counterparts by 50 years. That French settlers bested the Mayflower Pilgrims may surprise Americans raised on our foundational myth, but the record is clear.

Long before the Pilgrims sailed in 1620, another group of dissident Christians sought a haven in which to worship freely. These French Calvinists, or Huguenots, hoped to escape the sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants that had bloodied France since 1560.

In short order, these French pilgrims built houses, a mill and bakery, and apparently even managed to press some grapes into a few casks of wine. At first, relationships with the local Timucuans were friendly, and some of the French settlers took native wives and soon acquired the habit of smoking a certain local â€œherb.â€ Food, wine, women â€” and tobacco by the sea, no less. A veritable Gallic paradise.

With this, Americaâ€™s first pilgrims disappeared from the pages of history. Casualties of Europeâ€™s murderous religious wars, they fell victim to Anglophile historians who erased their existence as readily as they demoted the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine to second-class status behind the later English colonies in Jamestown and Plymouth.

But the truth cannot be so easily buried. Although overlooked, a brutal first chapter had been written in the most untidy history of a â€œChristian nation.â€ And the sectarian violence and hatred that ended with the deaths of a few hundred Huguenots in 1565 would be replayed often in early America, the supposed haven for religious dissent, which in fact tolerated next to none.

Starting with those massacred French pilgrims, the saga of the nationâ€™s birth and growth is often a bloodstained one, filled with religious animosities. In Boston, for instance, the Puritan fathers banned Catholic priests and executed several Quakers between 1659 and 1661. Cotton Mather, the famed Puritan cleric, led the war cries against New Englandâ€™s Abenaki â€œsavagesâ€ who had learned their prayers from the French Jesuits. The colony of Georgia was established in 1732 as a buffer between the Protestant English colonies and the Spanish missions of Florida; its original charter banned Catholics. The bitter rivalry between Catholic France and Protestant England carried on for most of a century, giving rise to anti-Catholic laws, while a mistrust of Canadaâ€™s French Catholics helped fire many patriotsâ€™ passion for independence. As late as 1844, Philadelphiaâ€™s anti-Catholic â€œBible Riotsâ€ took the lives of more than a dozen people.

The list goes on. Our history is littered with bleak tableaus that show what happens when righteous certitude is mixed with fearful ignorance. Which is why this Thanksgiving, as we express gratitude for Americaâ€™s bounty and promise, we would do well to reflect on all our histories, including a forgotten French one that began on Floridaâ€™s shores so many years ago.
Kenneth C. Davis is the author of â€œAmericaâ€™s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation.â€